Manulife Place Renovations | 145.99m | 36s | AIMCo | MdeAS

What do you think of this project?

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ATB Financial should buy CWB out and then ATB Financial should be sold off to Albertans and BColumbians. HO stays put.. My response to a post on SS.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by YegFan View Post
just like other acquisitions, they will eventually vacate Edmonton and set up shop in other cities. While CWB is small, it is a major tenant in downtown Edmonton and one that is not easy to replace over the years.
Started in Edmonton. "In 1988, the Bank of Alberta merged with Western & Pacific Bank to form Canadian Western Bank (CWB)." "When the bank commenced operations in 1984 it was led by Canadian Business Hall of Fame member Dr. Charles Allard[1][3] and Eugene Pechet,[1][3][4] starting with three employees working out of a boardroom located in one of Pechet's hotels in Edmonton, Alberta.[4] The Government of Alberta supported the newly formed Bank of Alberta by investing in 5% of its shares.[5]

Wiki:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Alberta

Too bad ATB Financial was not put on the market by the UCP before CWB was shopped around. Then there would have been some muscle in a Western based bank.
'n March 2019, Finance Minister Joe Ceci revealed the Government of Alberta had received a detailed offer from Scotiabank to purchase ATB Financial; however, the amount offered to privatize ATB was not provided by Ceci.[67] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATB_Financial “
 
I don't think selling ATB to Scotia or some other big bank would have helped Canadian Western Bank, but perhaps that is not what you mean.

Of course there has been a different government now for some time since Ceci was the Finance Minister, so I am surprised selling of ATB did not come up again more seriously since then.

But maybe CWB wasn't really that interested in buying ATB or it would have been too much of a stretch given its size. Now, if there is no other remaining Alberta bank to buy it, then the sale of ATB becomes even more unlikely.

If instead you privatize it, you could lose control with what happens after, so it could end up eventually owned by one of the big 5 eastern banks whose large masses tend to gravitationally capture everything. Years ago we used to have two fair sized phone companies headquartered in Edmonton, after privatization now there are none.
 
This is not going to end well. National paid top dollar for CWB and will need to realize synergies asap. All duplicated corporate type positions will likely be eliminated (think treasury, accounting, etc). I can see a lot of people being packaged out. I think the jobs will bleed over time until we are left with the more relationship type positions, like commercial bankers who deal in the local market. This will be sad, as of course these are above average paying jobs that will vanish. And also mean even less opportunities available for local talent. I’d be happy to be wrong
 
edm13 said:
This is not going to end well. National paid top dollar for CWB and will need to realize synergies asap. All duplicated corporate type positions will likely be eliminated (think treasury, accounting, etc). I can see a lot of people being packaged out. I think the jobs will bleed over time until we are left with the more relationship type positions, like commercial bankers who deal in the local market. This will be sad, as of course these are above average paying jobs that will vanish. And also mean even less opportunities available for local talent. I’d be happy to be wrong
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Give it probably 6-9 months from acquisition completion and it’ll be news of corporate hit squads at the Edmonton HQ targeting “redundancy”. CWB is probably the 2nd largest private sector employer in downtown. I don’t want to be a doomer but this feels like one of those things that still stings downtown in 10, 20 years.
 
edm13 said:
This is not going to end well. National paid top dollar for CWB and will need to realize synergies asap. All duplicated corporate type positions will likely be eliminated (think treasury, accounting, etc). I can see a lot of people being packaged out. I think the jobs will bleed over time until we are left with the more relationship type positions, like commercial bankers who deal in the local market. This will be sad, as of course these are above average paying jobs that will vanish. And also mean even less opportunities available for local talent. I’d be happy to be wrong
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National is basically paying the same as their own P/E ratio. One could easily argue CWB, which is consistently fairly profitable was currently very undervalued in the market, so they took the opportunity and snapped it up.

Also, as I understand this is being funded by shares not debt, so no additional interest cost to National Bank, and so really no pressing reason to cut costs immediately. The whole reason for this purchase anyways is market expansion, not cost efficiencies. I feel given the distance and maybe cultural differences between where National's head office is and here it would probably make sense to keep as much here as possible.
 
David A said:
National is basically paying the same as their own P/E ratio. One could easily argue CWB, which is consistently fairly profitable was currently very undervalued in the market, so they took the opportunity and snapped it up.

Also, as I understand this is being funded by shares not debt, so no additional interest cost to National Bank, and so really no pressing reason to cut costs immediately. The whole reason for this purchase anyways is market expansion, not cost efficiencies. I feel given the distance and maybe cultural differences between where National's head office is and here it would probably make sense to keep as much here as possible.
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Yeah so to your point, if national is paying its PE to acquire, then CWBs earnings are not going to be accretive on their own. So you need to find synergies. Anything that is repetitive like I mentioned in my first point, will be eliminated almost immediately I am sure. In a world where your shareholders expect ever increasing earnings quarter after quarter, this almost has to be the case. I hope you’re right but I think you will be wrong, especially as time passes! For any one who has a connection to their manulife lease, it would be interesting to hear from them if there have been any rumblings about what the future might look like
 
Is it...is it...is it happening?

20240704_130613.jpg
 
If it already hasn't done so, the City should work to get some assurances from the Federal Government that the office won't be moving out of town in the future as a result of the takeover.
 
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edm13 said:
So sad for Edmonton long term… anyone hear anything about what will happen with the lease they signed in manulife?
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I interviewed with one of the Assistant VPs at CWB about a month ago and he said it was a "done deal" and going ahead "no matter what happens". He sounded 100% confident (and should know) although I've sounded 100% confident in business dealings right up until I wasn't before so take that for what you will.
 
I understand the trepidation. While it would be nice to see a boost to the Manulife Building which has languished over the last few years, it would not be terrible either if they stayed in their current building, which has been very nicely fixed up recently.

I suspect the move will go ahead, as it has been planned for and agreed to, and both banks could use the additional space to help grow their business in the west, which I feel is the intention of both.
 
David A said:
I understand the trepidation. While it would be nice to see a boost to the Manulife Building which has languished over the last few years, it would not be terrible either if they stayed in their current building, which has been very nicely fixed up recently.

I suspect the move will go ahead, as it has been planned for and agreed to, and both banks could use the additional space to help grow their business in the west, which I feel is the intention of both.
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An acquisition also doesn't imply that all of the current employees will be instantly vaporized. I think that CWB will get many more years out of the current building.

Agreed about the Manulife building though, retail attraction into downtown is a challenge.
 
Gronk! said:
One step closer...

edmonton.ctvnews.ca

Canadian Western Bank shareholders approve National Bank takeover

Canadian Western Bank says shareholders have overwhelmingly voted in favour of a sale of the company to National Bank of Canada.
edmonton.ctvnews.ca edmonton.ctvnews.ca
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The future of the remnants of CWB Edmonton operations is unknown. Shareholders of CWB got their ask and some may invest in NB or simply exit. Only after getting Federal approval will we hear from NB about what aspects of the NB business will be remain in Edmonton if any. I think redevelopment of space in Manulife will occur slowly with a final lease only signed when there is clarity on the Edmonton operations.
 
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